Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet? (24 page)

Further, fibers from this jacket were also matched to trace fibers collected from the wrist ligature, neck ligature, and vacuumed evidence from the paint tray and Wine Cellar floor.

Some intruder theorists thought that the transfer of Patsy’s jacket fibers to the duct tape may have taken place after John had removed it from JonBenét’s face, and placed it on the white blanket in the cellar. They believed it possible that prior contact taking place between the blanket and jacket could account for the transfer of these fibers to the tape.

Lab technicians had conducted experiments with the same brand of duct tape, by attempting to
lift
trace fibers from the blanket recovered in the Wine Cellar. Direct contact was made in different quadrants of the blanket. There was some minimal transfer of jacket fibers made to the tape during this exercise, but Trujillo told me lab technicians didn’t think that this type of transfer accounted for the
number
of jacket fibers that had been found on the sticky side of the tape. It was thought that
direct
contact between the jacket and tape was more likely the reason for the
quantity
of fibers found on this piece of evidence.

BPD investigators looked to the other jacket fibers found in the Wine Cellar, in the paint tray, and on the cord used to bind JonBenét as physical evidence that linked Patsy with the probable location of her daughter’s death – the basement hallway and Wine Cellar.

The paint tray was reported to have been moved to the basement about a month prior to the kidnapping, and investigators doubted that Patsy would have been working on art projects while wearing the dress jacket. The collection of jacket fibers from
all
of these different locations raised strong suspicions about her involvement in the crime.

Investigators also learned that fibers collected from the interior lining of the Essentials jacket did not match control samples from the sweater that had been provided to police by Ramsey attorneys. Investigators thought that this suggested she had been wearing some other article of clothing beneath the jacket.

But there were still other trace fibers that had yet to be accounted for. Brown cotton fibers had been found on four items closely associated with the body of JonBenét and implements used in her murder. Lab technicians thought the fibers similar to a pair of cotton work gloves.

Had the gloves gone the way of the cord, duct tape, practice notes, and stun gun when the perpetrator left the home that night?

I returned to my office and contemplated the sheer size and volume of the Ramsey
library
of materials awaiting my review. I realized that coming to understand it all was going to be one of the biggest challenges I had ever faced.

It would be an understatement to say that I was genuinely surprised by what I eventually discovered.

I
reviewed the same 35 mm photographs in the files that Lou Smit had reportedly studied, and I think we only agreed on one point. It appeared to me that there were fresh smudge marks in the dirt on the exterior windowsill of the north, ground floor bathroom window. The interior photographs of this window revealed it to be locked and no debris or other signs that this may have been a point of entry were present.

Smit had pointed to a baseball bat being present on the ground just a few feet from this window, and I think he may have been suggesting that this might be linked to JonBenét’s head injury. Another bat was found in another part of the yard, and I thought these the remnants of childhood play and explainable. I thought it possible that some of Burke’s playmates were responsible for the smudges observed on the sill of this window due to the close proximity of the baseball bat.

Our opinions diverged considerably at that point.

In his Power Point presentation, Smit spent a significant amount of time pointing out smudge marks, leaves, vegetation, and other debris located in and around the Train Room window well. The smudges he pointed out in these photographs did not appear to be as fresh as those observed on the exterior of the north bathroom windowsill, and it was my opinion that these had been created that summer when John Ramsey had broken into the house. Yes, there were definite signs of disturbance in the area of this window but there appeared to be a film of dirt on this sill that was not present at the bathroom window.

Photo 20 - Smudging on exterior window sill of Train Room window well. Source: Boulder PD Case Files / Internet

More importantly, there was no way to properly date the placement of the mark on the wall below the window, and I believed it entirely possible that John Ramsey was responsible for that “intruder” evidence. Ramsey told investigators during his April 1997 interview that he had stripped down to his underwear before climbing through that window, but had worn his dress shoes. The darkened mark on the wall looked like it could have been created by the sole of this type of shoe.

For the sake of clarity, I think it is important to understand the positioning of the Train Room window well, and the relation of the window bank to the interior of the storage room of the basement.

The window grate sits level with the ground and is located just outside a south facing door that opens to the rear south-west yard of the home. This door provides access to the rear kitchen hallway and can be viewed from the windows of the den. The grate is difficult to see from the alley running behind the residence, and a large covered bar-b-q grill further obscured its view from the rear of the home.

The metal grate was not secured to the foundation and one could easily lift it and drop into the narrow window well, thus gaining access to a series of three windows that provided subterranean light and air to the basement Train Room. The window well was a confined space, measuring 77 inches in length, 16 inches in width, and 45 inches deep.

From the interior view, there were a series of three wooden windows that ran horizontally across the face of the west wall of the storage room, and they butted up against the ceiling of the room. The bank of windows extended across approximately six feet of the wall and was situated approximately four feet above the floor. Each window contained four separate panes of glass.

It was the middle window that John Ramsey had chosen when forcibly entering his home the previous summer, and the upper left window pane had been partially broken out when he had unlocked the window, and climbed into the basement. The BPD diagram showed that the exterior width of this window frame was 20 inches.

This particular window was hinged on the right side and swung to the interior of the room when opened. Each window was secured by an old-fashioned latch that turned 90 degrees to latch into hardware attached to the frame.

The interior dimensions of these windows were not generous, but an adult could maneuver in the tight spaces of the window well and manage to scoot through the frame and drop to the floor of the room. The dimensions of each window, as documented by Boulder CSI’s, measured approximately 25 inches high by 20 inches wide.

With regard to the intruder’s access through the window grate, Smit specifically pointed to vegetation that was growing between the cement foundation of the wall and the metal frame- his premise being that the grate had been lifted by the perpetrator to gain access to the basement and had pinned the plant material beneath it. Yet, in the same photograph, he ignored clusters of pine needles that were sitting atop the grate. These certainly would have been displaced if the grate had been recently lifted as he was theorizing, and I didn’t understand how he could dismiss evidence that was clearly in plain sight.

Photo 21 - Window grate depicting leaves and pine needles above, and vegetation growing beneath. Source: Boulder PD Case Files / Internet

I found it puzzling that he didn’t present any photographs of the cobweb situated in the lower left hand corner of the window frame. My review of the 35 mm still photographs suggested this triangular-shaped web to be of significant size and very likely would have been destroyed by someone climbing through the window. I couldn’t fathom why he neglected to include this as a part of his presentation of the intruder theory.

Up to that point, I had only studied the 35 mm still photographs of the crime scene and had not been able to locate a device to play the mini-cassette video recording taken by CSIs during the execution of the search warrant. BPD came through again and was able to copy the crime scene video to a CD / DVD for my examination.

The crime scene video documented the return of the Boulder Police Department to the Ramsey home at approximately 2036 hours on the evening of December 26, 1996, after having secured a search warrant for the premises. I reviewed the video on a number of occasions, but in this particular instance the recording of the Train Room window drew my attention.

It is a commonly shared experience by all of us in this past century that a “still” photograph represents a very minute slice of time. We have all gazed in amusement at our childhood pictures and tried to remember what was going through our minds at the moment that the snapshot momentarily captured our image and our essence. We have similarly contemplated the same things when viewing historical photographs that reach beyond our life span.

And it goes without saying that the film that captures our physical movement has captivated our imagination since the early 1920’s, and Hollywood has turned this technology into a billion dollar industry. Strips of celluloid have permitted us to visit the places of our dreams.

The crime scene video of December 26, 1996, proved to be equally hypnotic and most assuredly took me firmly into its grasp.

I watched as the CSI pointed their camera and followed them as they proceeded to tour the Ramsey home. It was as though I was standing over their shoulder as the camera turned here and there.

It was disheartening to see the lifeless body of JonBenét stretched out upon the floor of the living room near a decorated Christmas tree, and I was reminded of the cruel tragedy that had been visited upon this family.

The lens of the camera eventually reached the basement of the home, and I was intrigued as it tracked the route that had been described in the interview transcripts of John Ramsey and Fleet White. A flashlight illuminated a closet that was blocked by a fireplace grate, one and the same that Fleet had described searching during one of his three interviews with police investigators.

I stepped through the doorway of the Train Room housing a table that displayed the imagination of a 9-year-old boy. Train track and its attendant vehicles encircled miniature buildings and the figures of townspeople who seemed oblivious to the nature of their surroundings. Loose track was scattered across the floor, and I proceeded into what appeared to be a cluttered storage room, taking in a space filled with shelving and the detritus of a family’s existence that was spread across the floor.

A hard-cased suitcase stood erect beneath an open window, and upon closer inspection, a small kernel of glass sat upon the top of the suitcase. The interior sill of the window was clear of any glass, and I thought it possible that the wind had blown open the window, knocking White’s
small kernel of glass
to the top of the suitcase before the crime scene video had captured the scene.
⁴⁷

The video continued to explore the condition of the window and a light breeze gently teased the remnants of additional cobwebs that clung to the lower portion of the window frame.

My vision blurred as I focused my attention on the window that was standing halfway open on the exterior wall of the home. A series of three windows stretched across the wall, and the center window was comprised of four panes of glass. The upper left pane exhibited fractured glass that had never been replaced and fulfilled the description of John’s entry into his home that previous summer.

The torn remains of a broken, and dusty cobweb floated gently from portions of the broken and jagged glass.

Photo 22 - Small kernel of glass resting on top of Samsonite suitcase. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

My attention turned to a triangular-shaped silken web clinging tenuously to the lower left window frame, and it fluttered in the winter breeze. To its right, near the midsection of the exterior sill, was balanced a small rectangular-shaped piece of glass. It had in some fashion come to rest on the sill in this precarious position.

Photo 23 - Spider web and debris tangled in lower left hand corner of the Train Room window. Source: Boulder PD Crime Scene Video / Case File